3 ms·

I thought the App Store review guidelines explicitly prohibit hidden features and using public APIs outside their intended purpose. Is audio-based fingerprintin

I thought the App Store review guidelines explicitly prohibit hidden features and using public APIs outside their intended purpose. Is audio-based fingerprinting just not something review can realistically catch?

ValdikSS 2mo ago
They probe all audio devices, including microphones, which probably temporarily switches Bluetooth devices into HPF mode due to how Bluetooth duplex audio works. I'd argue it's "silent" though: aliexpress wakes up my audio card if nothing plays, which results in a very faint "pop" sound every time I open the tab. It's been this way for ~3+ years at least.
lapcat 2mo ago
It's the website. The title of the article literally mentions "WebAudio", and the first paragraph states that the author is using a PC. The second paragraph mentions Chrome and Firefox. Apple and the App Store have zero involvement here.
- hunter2_ 2mo ago
  This is a huge stretch, but if this problem exists in not only the PC versions of Chrome/Firefox but also the Android/iOS versions, then theoretically the app store reviewers could flag the browsers for facilitating this behavior against app store guidelines. In practice, apps of such caliber as popular browsers might be a bit above such reviewers' pay grade, so to speak.
  - lapcat 2mo ago
    > This is a huge stretch This is nonsense. Safari also supports Web Audio. Safari does not, however, support Microsoft Windows, which is why the article author didn't mention it. Moreover, all web browsers on iOS have to use Apple WebKit, so Web Audio support is not actually the fault of the non-Apple browser vendors.
- sillyboi 1mo ago
  Right, the article is about the website. I was responding to the comments up there about the iOS app doing the same thing in the background, but I didn't catch the little bit with the reply.

3 ms·

I thought the App Store review guidelines explicitly prohibit hidden features and using public APIs outside their intended purpose. Is audio-based fingerprintin

by sillyboi 2mo ago

ValdikSS 2mo ago
They probe all audio devices, including microphones, which probably temporarily switches Bluetooth devices into HPF mode due to how Bluetooth duplex audio works. I'd argue it's "silent" though: aliexpress wakes up my audio card if nothing plays, which results in a very faint "pop" sound every time I open the tab. It's been this way for ~3+ years at least.
lapcat 2mo ago
It's the website. The title of the article literally mentions "WebAudio", and the first paragraph states that the author is using a PC. The second paragraph mentions Chrome and Firefox. Apple and the App Store have zero involvement here.
- hunter2_ 2mo ago
  This is a huge stretch, but if this problem exists in not only the PC versions of Chrome/Firefox but also the Android/iOS versions, then theoretically the app store reviewers could flag the browsers for facilitating this behavior against app store guidelines. In practice, apps of such caliber as popular browsers might be a bit above such reviewers' pay grade, so to speak.
  - lapcat 2mo ago
    > This is a huge stretch This is nonsense. Safari also supports Web Audio. Safari does not, however, support Microsoft Windows, which is why the article author didn't mention it. Moreover, all web browsers on iOS have to use Apple WebKit, so Web Audio support is not actually the fault of the non-Apple browser vendors.
- sillyboi 1mo ago
  Right, the article is about the website. I was responding to the comments up there about the iOS app doing the same thing in the background, but I didn't catch the little bit with the reply.